Newcomers Lead Fighting Illini to Road Win at Iowa State

Recap

Box Score

AMES, Iowa. – After dropping the doubles point, four Illini in their first season at Illinois secured wins on the singles courts leading to a 4-3 win at Iowa State on Friday. Action took place at the Iowa State Tennis Facility.

Illinois is now 3-5 on the season while Iowa State fell to 2-3. All of the Fighting Illini losses have come to ranked opponents.

Iowa State got on the scoreboard first, taking the doubles point. The Illini tandem of Ariel Madatali and Cara Mester picked up a win at No. 3 doubles, 6-3, but the Cyclones claimed decisions at No. 1 and 3. Madatali and Mester are now 4-3 when working together in dual play. With the win, Mester is the first Illini to claim 10 doubles matches across the 2025-26 season.

In singles play, Illinois secured the first two points to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

Tess Bucher got the Illini on the board with a straight-set 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 4. With the win, the sophomore improved to 2-4 on the dual season.

Cara Mester followed suit and won a 7-5, 6-2 decision at No. 6 singles. Friday's win marked the sophomore's first of the dual season and pushed her to 7-3 overall on the campaign.

From there, Iowa State answered back with a win at No. 3 singles to knot the match at 2-2.

Illinois pulled ahead at 3-2 when Kimiko Cooper won a 7-6(3), 6-3 decision at No. 2 singles. She trailed 5-3 in the first set before battling back to win the frame in a tiebreaker. Cooper now holds a 3-4 record on the season.

Iowa State answered back again to bring the match even at 3-3 with a win at No. 1 singles.

All eyes turned to No. 5 singles, where Illini freshman Lizzie Isyanov was taking on Iowa State's Alicia Dale. After dropping the first set, 6-4, Isyanov responded with a 6-3 second-set decision to even her match. From there, the Elmhurst, Illinois, native secured a 6-4 third set win to earn the first clinch of her career. Isyanov is now 8-6 overall on the season and 3-3 in dual play.

Friday's win marked the first match of the season where the Illini lost the doubles point and went on to be victorious.

NEXT UP

Following Friday's action, Coach Clark's crew will close nonconference play against Wisconsin on Friday, Feb. 20 at 5 p.m. CT, from Atkins Tennis Center.

ILLINOIS (3-5) 4, IOWA STATE (2-3) 3

Doubles:
1 - No. 51 Mari Alberto Vilar/Stanisla Shulzhenko (ISU) def. No. 59 Tess Bucher/Alice Xu (Illinois) - 7-5
2 - Julia Camblor/Gabrielle Kellner (ISU) def. McKenna Schaefbauer/Kimiko Cooper (Illinois) - 6-1
3 - Ariel Madatali/Cara Mester (Illinois) def. Suzanie Pretorius/San Martin Ramirez (ISU) - 6-3

Order of finish: 2, 3, 1

Singles:
1 - No. 58 Mari Alberto Vilar (ISU) def. No. 67 McKenna Schaefbauer (Illinois) - 7-5, 7-6(5)
2 - Kimiko Cooper (Illinois) def. Ashlee Narker (ISU) - 7-6(3), 6-3
3 - Julia Camblor (ISU) def. Ariel Madatali (Illinois) - 6-4, 6-4
4 - Tess Bucher (Illinois) def. Suzanie Pretorius (ISU) - 6-3, 6-3
5 - Lizzie Isyanov (Illinois) def. Alicia Dale (ISU) - 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
6 - Cara Mester (Illinois) def. San Martin Ramirez (ISU) - 7-5, 6-2